The Defense Department needs a foundational way of computing as it moves forward in developing applications for the cloud, Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy told DoD's information technology professionals in a worldwide video teleconference from the Defense Information Systems Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Here are the CIO's key points:

In the center of the digital modernization is the warfighter, and getting the latest IT tools into warfighters' hands as quickly as possible is key.

"We're going to put enabling technologies on top of the cloud, such as artificial intelligence," Deasy said, noting that other technologies in the cloud will include unlimited compute capacity and storage, command and control, and cyber.

Joined by an 11-person panel of IT and cyber leaders in DoD, Deasy talked about the department's digital modernization vision, what it entails, how it touches everyone in DoD and how the department will move forward.

Deasy said the Defense Department's cloud that will be stood up at DISA will be an enterprise of "multi-vendors in a multi-environment at DoD."

"We will continue to have a very robust internal cloud capability," he said. "We will have a general-purpose cloud to … serve a lot of our needs, but there is no one cloud that can take care of everything, so we have fit-for-purpose [clouds]. Where we see a unique requirement for cloud compute that cannot be handled by general purpose, we will stand up fit-for-purpose clouds."

To become more efficient in the ways DoD reforms how it works, a reform program is looking to address all aspects of the department's computer landscape, Deasy said.

CHIPS is an official U.S. Navy website sponsored by the Department of the Navy (DON)
Chief Information Officer, the Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative
(ESI) and the DON's ESI Software Product Manager Team at Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Center Pacific.